Daniel Agger has spoken of his frustration at being sidelined at Liverpool but insisted he will not reconsider his Anfield future while he retains the confidence of Brendan Rodgers.

The Liverpool vice-captain was recalled to the team for Saturday's 4-0 defeat of Fulham, having had a rare substitute's role for the previous five games. He responded with an authoritative display as Liverpool kept their first clean sheet in nine matches.

Agger's problems started in mid-September when he suffered a tear to his abdominal muscle while attempting to prevent a dumb-bell falling on his foot in training. He missed the 2-2 draw at Swansea City as a consequence, returned to play through the pain barrier in the home defeat by Southampton but aggravated the injury and sat out the Capital One Cup exit at Manchester United.

The 28-year-old's recovery coincided with Rodgers deploying Kolo Touré, Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho in a three-man central defence before defeat at Arsenal prompted a return to a back four and a recall for the influential Denmark international.

"It's been difficult," admitted Agger. "It's hard to describe and I want to play every time in every single game, so when you're not playing it's difficult. But, when that is said, I just have to work even harder every single day in training, not complain and just do everything that little bit extra.

"I feel I belong there. I feel I'm more than capable of being in the team, but it's the manager's decision. Sometimes that's difficult to change in training. You need to grab the chance when it's there and that's what football is about, taking your chances. There has always been competition for places at this club and it should always be intense. That's a good thing because we want to win something."

Agger insists he did not seek an explanation for being left out of the team from the Liverpool manager but believes he suffered for playing with the injury against Southampton. "It was a stupid injury," said the defender. "I was in the gym. What can I say? I should have started against Swansea when I got the tear in my abdominal and then when I started the week after I should not have done that because of the tear and where it was. It was just too much.

"That never helped me, but I'm not the type of player who needs an explanation, I just carry on with my thing and try to do everything I can do to get back in the team. It's been a bit longer than I hoped for, but when you get the chance, you need to do everything you can to keep your place."

The Liverpool defender has been coveted by Barcelona and Manchester City in recent transfer windows and his omission prompted suggestions Agger would consider his Anfield future if he remained on the margins by January. But he added: "To be honest, that's nothing to do with me. I know I'm here and as long as I'm doing everything to be in that team and I feel I'm good enough and the manager can use me, then I'll be here.

"I've trained hard these last few weeks and I've trained a lot, so physically I'm probably better now than I was before. When you haven't played for a while, you need to get the timing right and you need to get your confidence right on the pitch and that takes some time, but I think we did OK against Fulham. We kept a clean sheet which is always good as a defender."

Liverpool returned to second in the Premier League with their convincing win over Martin Jol's team and Agger believes the tireless performance underlined the hunger for Champions League qualification at Anfield.

The defender explained: "There's a long way to go but all the guys here want to play Champions League again. I feel we're looking more solid this season and we've had a few seasons now without Champions League football. When you play in that tournament, it's where you want to be because that's where all the best players and all the best teams are. We definitely want to be there.

"You can see that desire on the pitch. It wasn't just a good performance against Fulham, scoring four goals and keeping a clean sheet. We were running a lot. We were working for each other and if you want to finish in the top four in the Premier League, that's important. That's more important than maybe the quality."